I feel as though I need to write something. The trouble is I don’t really want to write and am thus stifled as to what to write about. Thus here I am, sitting in my recliner, typing and hoping my laptop doesn’t crap out on me in the process. I’ve had this machine for nearly four years. The solid state drive is frustratingly full. In fact I have a replacement drive at work. I just need to do the drive cloning and installation.

While I’m playing the high tech game of “Operation” I have another issue that needs to be addressed. My laptop has a tendency to bluntly power off if it is not placed and being used on a hard surface. I have traced the problem down to the thermal management of the power board and possibly the CPU. The reading of forums has left the problem ambiguous, but it seems that reapplying thermal compound to the CPU/heat-sink had solved the problem for a couple of people. Thus, I’ll give that a swag.

In the next few weeks it will be important to have the laptop reliability. Namely, as I am using it as the primary machine for my coaching of Lego Robotics this season and we will need to bring the computer to competition in order to modify the code, perform light sensor calibrations.

In reality, I need a separate computer for work and home. It is difficult for me to split work and home life in general, but with tech savvy kids and non-work technical activities ranging from blogging to e-commerce to getting into basic manufacturing I think it is coming time to draw a more solid line between the two.